vanguard takes slice of centro

Sorry if this has already been posted.


Herald Sun, 20/3/08
"Herald takes slice of Centro"
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23405151-664,00.html

FUND manager Vanguard Investments has snapped up just over 5 per cent of troubled shopping centre empire Centro.

The company's attempts to mirror the ASX 300 Property Trusts Index has also seen it file substantial shareholder notices for other property players GPT and Valad.

Vanguard specialises in running funds that mirror the performance of market indices.

Head of retail Robin Bowman said Vanguard now controls somewhere between 4.5 per cent and 5 per cent of listed LPT investment in Australia.

"We're going to be tripping over 5 per cent rules pretty regularly," he said.

"The amount of money we manage in property in Australia has grown.

"Basically people are using indexing more and more, particularly in property where there's only about 30 securities."

He said Vanguard manages funds of about $72 billion in Australia, both in its own funds and on behalf of other institutions.

"We don't separate those out but it's fair to say that when they (institutions) come to Vanguard they come for index fund-like investment."

In a substantial shareholder notice filed with the stock exchange yesterday, Vanguard said it had been buying Centro scrip since November last year, paying as much as $6.65 a share.

It said the lowest price paid was 28 a share.

In separate announcements, Vanguard also told the ASX it had bought 5.2 per cent of Valad and about 5 per cent of GPT.